Recipients to use UO's 2014 Faculty Research Awards to buoy studies

As research grants go, $5,500 is a small drop in what can sometimes amount to a bucket of nautical proportions. But recipients of this year's UO Faculty Research Awards recognize that even a relatively small sum can be critical in floating their work.

"(It's) very important for collecting preliminary data for future grant submissions," said Andrew Lovering, an associate professor of human physiology who will use his $5,500 Faculty Research Award for supplies and to travel for work with research collaborator Rob Roach at the University of Colorado, Denver.

"We study blood vessels in the lung that allow blood clots to bypass the lung capillaries and subsequently cause stroke," Lovering said. "Our proposal will investigate the effect of low barometric pressure, like that experienced at high altitude, on the regulation of blood flow through (the blood vessels)."

Lovering was among 21 UO faculty members to receive the 2014 Faculty Research Awards announced this week by Kimberly Andrews Espy, the university's vice president for research and innovation.

The awards are intended to stimulate research by providing faculty with support for research expenses. The funding – as much as $5,500 each – can be spent on travel, summer stipend, equipment, supplies, contractual services, shared facility use, graduate or undergraduate student research assistance and other uses. The awards cannot be used to replace faculty salary or buy out courses, or for construction or renovation.

Melissa Michaud Baese-Berk, an assistant professor of linguistics, received her award for a project that will probe how the speed at which someone talks influences a listener's perception.

"This award is extremely important, as it will allow me to collect pilot data that I will use for a larger grant application next year," she said.

The award will help her pay study participants, who need to be non-native speakers of English, and for an undergraduate research assistant to collect and analyze data.

"My collaborators and I have done some previous work that demonstrates that for native speakers and listeners, speech rate influences how many words the listener perceives," Baese-Berk said.

The study also will examine if listeners' expectations of what they hear are learned by experience in their native language, and whether speech rates interact with other factors, such as a person's accent, to disrupt what listeners perceive.

Anthropology professor Carol Silverman received a $5,500 Faculty Research Award to study the current globalization of Balkan Gypsy music in western Europe and North America.

"I am analyzing the styles, genres and political and economic contexts," Silverman said. "Often, the music is appropriated by non-Roma, with no benefit to Roma."

She'll use the award to devote time for travel and writing.

"Time to examine materials and reflect is extremely valuable in the life of a teaching professor," Silverman said.

Faculty Research Awards are made annually through the UO office of Research, Innovation, and Graduate Education, to university faculty from all disciplinary backgrounds.

Faculty members submit proposals to a Faculty Research committee appointed by the University Senate. Committee members evaluate are selected by a Faculty Research Committee through competitive review proposals on the basis of their intellectual merit and make recommendations to the vice president for research and innovation. Espy this year funded 21 awards – one more than the usual maximum.

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